WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
The WWE SmackDown Women's Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. It is one of the top two women's championships for WWE's main roster, along with the Raw Women's Championship on the Raw brand. The current champion is Bayley, who is in her first reign. The title was unveiled on the August 23, 2016, episode of SmackDown Live as the counterpart title to the then-WWE Women's Championship, which became exclusive to Raw as a result of the 2016 WWE draft. That title was subsequently renamed after the crowning of the inaugural SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch. It has been contested in the headlining match of a WWE pay-per-view event at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in December 2018 and, along with the Raw Women's Championship, was defended in the main event match of WrestleMania XX in April 2019, WWE's flagship event. History ]] Following the reintroduction of the WWE brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, then-WWE Women's Champion Charlotte was drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a women's championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016, episode of SmackDown, SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon and general manager Daniel Bryan unveiled the SmackDown Women's Championship (Raw's title was subsequently renamed). A six-pack elimination challenge was then scheduled for Backlash on September 11, 2016, to determine the inaugural champion. The six women who competed at SummerSlam in the six-woman tag team match were chosen for the six-pack challenge: Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi, Natalya, and Nikki Bella. The championship belt design is nearly identical to the Raw Women's Championship with the difference being that the background of the center plate and the default side plates' globes are blue (as opposed to red) to symbolize its exclusivity to SmackDown. As with the Raw's Women's Championship, the side plates can be customized with the champion's logo. During Naomi's second reign, strips of multi interchanging colored LED lights were placed around the outline of the WWE logo and the outline of the belt to go with her "glow" gimmick. The title headlined a pay-per-view event for the first time at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2018, when Becky Lynch defended it in the first women's Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match against Charlotte Flair and Asuka, which Asuka won. The title was on the line in a winner takes all triple threat match in the main event of WrestleMania XX, where Flair defended the title against Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey and Lynch, who won the match. This was the first women's match to main event a WrestleMania – WWE's flagship event. Inaugural championship match Reigns Main article: List of WWE SmackDown Women's Champions As of , , there have been 15 reigns between 8 champions and 1 vacancy. Charlotte Flair has the most reigns at four and her first reign is the longest single reign at 147 days. Flair also has the shortest reign at 4 minutes and 55 seconds due to Bayley cashing in her Money in the Bank contract on Flair, who had just won the title from Becky Lynch. Lynch has the longest combined reign at 217 days. Bayley is the current champion in her first reign. She defeated previous champion Charlotte Flair by cashing in her Money in the Bank contract to win the title at Money in the Bank in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 19, 2019, after Flair had just won the title from Becky Lynch. Category:SmackDown Category:Women's championship